Retail Articles

The National Retail Federation (NRF) has announced its support for patent reform legislation introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck E. Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ranking Member Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., that aims to help retailers guard against patent trolls.

Retail data breaches have made the headlines, and your merchant IT clients are more and more aware of the threat cybercriminals pose to their businesses. In this exclusive interview, Business Solutions asks Karen Cox, VP of payments and retail solutions for Moneris Solutions to share the basics of helping your merchant IT clients — especially tier 2 and 3 merchants — maintain security, to offer examples of technology solutions that can help keep payment card data more secure, and to explain the VAR’s role in helping clients maintain PCI DSS compliance.

The U.S. is in the process of the migration to EMV. There is less than five months until the October 1 liability shift — when liability for fraudulent payment card transactions shifts to the party with the least EMV-compliant technology. Some of your merchant IT clients or prospects, particularly SMB merchants, could be at the very beginning of the process to adopt EMV technology.

The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has published PCI DSS Version 3.1 and supporting guidance, designed to help organizations address vulnerabilities that may place their payment data at risk. Version 3.1 is available on the PCI SSC website, and PCI DSS Version 3.0 is set to be retired on June 30, 2015.

An infographic from staffing organization Randstad examines five trends driving how mobility is used to connect businesses with customers. According to Randstad, enterprise mobility is now transcending BYOD (bring your own device) to encompass better business intelligence, ultra-personalization in mobile marketing, and creating “mobile moments” that mark unique business experiences.

In many cases, it’s large retailers who drive the adoption of the latest technology innovations. After all, they’ve got deeper pockets and the capability (i.e. personnel and expertise) to tinker with things. That said, smaller retailers have some things going for them as well. While many are short on IT budget, free time, and in-house expertise, there’s a willingness to gamble on something without fear of how shareholders will react or how competitive retailers will respond.

Each month, Business Solutions reports news on business in the channel. This month in point of sale, payment processing and data collection news, Ingenico Mobile Solutions launches a new near-field communication (NFC) mobile payments device, BlueStar enhances logistics to serve North American resellers, NCR Connected Payments achieves PCI DSS 3.0, ScanSource announces a POS-as-a-Service bundle and a cloud services program, and NMI launches a payment enablement platform for VARs and ISVs.